Sibling to Perfection
by elvengirl9
Summary: Lily's the one everyone loves, the brilliant witch, the firey beauty, and kind smile. Fate swept her along a fatal path of glory. This is the story of the sibling who was left behind.


Disclaimer: Sadly, JK Rowling owns everything in this story. Not that I'm begrudging JK her characters. 

**Author's Note:** This came as an insight from somewhere. I know what it's like to hate your younger sister, and I know what it's like to fall in love, and I know what it's like to hate someone you barely know, however opinionated your... opinion might be. I just mixed them all together.

Sibling to Perfection 

I envied her. That much, I can admit to myself. She was such a "perfect child." Oh, when she was here, it was Lily the gifted, Lily, the amazing, coming home with 319 on tests and god-knows-what learned. And the rest of the year? Every time I did something wrong, my parent's adoring praise of my little sister turned to demands of me. "What happened to these grades? Why aren't you more like Lily?" Or, "Lily's younger than you, and she'd never do something like that." Never mind that any crazy things Lily did wouldn't be done in the two months she saw her parents, and her 200-whatever percentages weren't A's or B's. For all my parents knew, Lily could be an idiot who cheated on her tests and lied to us over the holidays.

But that was the thing. Lily isn't a liar. She's gods-blessedly perfect. And I am like scum on the bottom of someone's shoe for suggesting it. Lily's perfect my parents are perfect, everyone is but me. I hate it. She even had the looks.

"Petunia, here," my father would say, "was going to be named Lily. But when I first saw her, she was so purple and blotchy! I said, 'She looks like a petunia!' And your mother here laughed, and we decided to name her Petunia." Then he'd ruffle Lily's hair fondly, leaving me feeling like a distant relative, or an orphan, even.

She was bloody perfect. Except there was nothing bloody about her. Everyone knew that. And no matter what I did, _I'm not Lily. _No one understood that.

My friends were nice, but hopeless. When they met Lily over the summers, they'd say how nice she was and how lucky I was to have such a wonderful sister until I wanted to scream. I couldn't tell them about how a freak she was, because, who'd believe me? My friends were great, and I didn't want to lose them because of my sister. My parents were already beyond my reach.

It wasn't until my sister's 15th birthday, when I was eighteen, that I met Vernon. He was so big and strong, so protective. He made everything okay, and he loved me for who I was- Petunia. He told me how beautiful I was. When he touched me, he was so gentle. He even loved me after I told him about Lily, however skeptical.

"You never told me you had a sister," he gruffly commented. "What's she like?"

I avoided the question, fiddling with a pen I had in my hands. Finally, I asked, "Vernon? … Do you believe in magic?"

He looked at me oddly, and spoke only one word. "Why?"

And it all came out- the bitterness, the evil thoughts I'd had for three years, how perfect she was and how I wasn't. I poisoned Vernon against her. Three years later, when Lily graduated from Hugwerst, or whatever, he disliked her from first sight, I had made him so biased. He'd never seen those perfect parts, never heard about the good in her. Hate made him ugly. Even more, hate made him dangerous. Something in his eyes scared me. But when he proposed to me, a month later, I accepted. After all, I reasoned, he didn't hate _me._ How he felt about my sister couldn't affect me- I never saw my sister, the distance between us so strong. My sister couldn't affect our relationship.

How very wrong I was.

By then, she was dating James Potter, an arrogant prat who hated Vernon. It's no surprise Vernon hated him back. But I also think was a bit scared of James- of James and my sister, after he learned firsthand what magic could do. Apparently the jerk my sister liked decided it would be funny to have the objects in the house throw themselves at Vernon on our wedding day- scaring the groom half to death right before he was married! I never forgave him or my sister for that incident. It was my wedding day- _my wedding day!_ It was the day of my life that was supposed to be absolutely perfect, and that… that James Potter ruined it! Now any chance of happiness was lost.

Of course, Lily the angel made James apologize, though all he could do was yell a muffled "Sorry!" after Vernon slammed the door in his face. For a week after, I avoided Vernon and the hate in his eyes, along with his mutters of, "that _witch"_ and "those freaks, what this world's coming to, I _swear._" I had to go along with his anger, or he'd get angry at _me._ And though he certainly couldn't do anything to my sister or her boyfriend, him taking his anger out on me would be no small thing. Luckily, Vernon was away at work much of the time, since he'd been promoted to Manager at this drill company, being the businessman he is. It meant more dinner parties, more status, and a little more time away from home. It was during this time, when he was away, that Lily came to our house.

She looked as perfect as ever, her red hair cheerfully catching the sunlight, her emerald eyes sympathetic. James certainly liked her for her looks. But everyone loved Lily.

"Lily," I said warily, after opening the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Petunia!" she said, and hugged me. The scent of cinnamon tickled my nose. "I'm so sorry about James. On your wedding day, too! He was being horrid, I know, but it's just how he is. I wouldn't speak to him until he apologized-"

"It's okay." No, it wasn't!

She took her head from my shoulder to look around. "Petunia, you're a wonder! This place is beautiful! I could never do anything like this!" She had a point there. Lily was perfect, but she had problems doing things like home decorating. I had a knack for it, but when you're perfect, things like not being so good at decorating a house don't matter.

"Oh, it was already quite nice, I just spruced it up a little." I was being so formal, or acting like I'd never met her, even!

Despite my thoughts, I invited her in, giving her some of my excellent fruitcake and some tea. We talked for a bit, and I learned a bit of my sister I'd never seen before.

"He really never will grow up, but he's been crazy about me since our second year, maybe even our first. I always thought he was joking, or trying to annoy me, but he really did love me, and I've come to love him, too," she said, blushing slightly when we came to the subject of James.

"I suppose he's fine, when you're on his better side. He doesn't understand Muggles-"

"Muggles?"

"Sorry, non-magic folk, that's what the wizarding world calls them-"

"There's a wizarding _world?"_ I was certainly learning things today. Lily was as perfect as ever, and I was being ostracized from a community I didn't know existed and being put into a group I'd never heard of.

"Yes, some of them don't believe muggles could ever be as smart as wizards. They're wrong, of course- you haven't had the advantage of magic. We're cheating, really."

"I suppose you never had any problem."

"Oh, but I did! These wizards call themselves purebloods- pure wizarding blood, that is- and they think that muggles, even those with magic, shouldn't be allowed."

Someone gave Lily trouble? "Allowed where?"

Lily frowned. "Just in general. Anywhere. They think of muggles as 'lesser beings,' and, well…" She looked around. "Don't tell anyone this, Petunia, but there's a group going around who think that they shouldn't be allowed at all. They want to kill every last muggle, even if they do have magic, or make them slaves. They're not too big yet, but Dumbledore's worried-"

This was too much information. "Dumbledore?"

"He's the greatest wizard in the world- he's also headmaster of Hogwarts, my school. He's leading the fight against these wizards, but I don't think Dumbledore knows who's leading the group, and it worries him."

"Are we- the, the Muggles- in danger?" I was scared. This was like government threats- there was a war that might start at any moment, and nobody knew.

"Well…" Lily bit her lip. "Maybe. We're doing everything we can to stop them, but we don't know what's going to happen."

"Lily… you mean I'm in danger from a force I can't stop?"

"We're doing everything we can to keep that from happening, but… yes."

"That's… that's _awful."_

"I know."

"Can't you just… magic them away?"

"Magic depends on its user. It's sort of like science, only… different. We research magic, just like science, and find new spells and things, like you invent new technology. Whenever a spell is invented, there's usually a counter-spell, and so on."

"You know what, Lily?"

"What?"

"That sounds hard."

"It is."

"I don't think you have an advantage over people without magic, except that we don't know what we're dealing with."

"Maybe. I don't know how this is going to end… I don't know if we'll see each other again."

"You mean…"

"I… I might be doing a few dangerous things in the future, to keep the muggle world safe. They might work, or they might…"

"Fail."

"Exactly. I don't know what's going to happen."

"You don't?"

"I'm not perfect, you know."

The impact of those words hit me harder than she knew. I didn't know what to say. Fortunately, I was spared having to reply.

Or unfortunately, as it turned out. Vernon had returned. The keys were in the door, and both me and my sister turned to it just as it opened. Vernon looked at me… then saw my sister.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he bellowed. "LETTING THEIR KIND HERE- INSIDE OUR HOUSE!"

I had never been as scared as in that moment- not when Lily told me about a cult trying to kill everyone, not when James was magicking things to fly everywhere. I was petrified. I had two options to take. To this day, I'm sure I chose the wrong one.

"I _wasn't_!" I yelled back. "She just- came in and wouldn't leave! You know I'd never let one of _her_ kind in here!" Lily stared at me, shocked.

"YOU! LEAVE OUR BLOODY HOUSE ALONE!" Vernon yelled at my sister. Looking at us, Lily glared at me for a second, and then decided to leave. More accurately, she disappeared into thin air with a tremendous _crack!_

Even as Vernon rushed to me and hugged me, I could see the space where she'd been. Somehow, I knew my life would never be the same.


End file.
